Memory and Foresight in the Celtic World: Perspectives from the Late Medieval through Modern Periods

thetic qualities, often noted in the records: for instance, a royal letter requested the replacement of the wooden gatehouse at Worcester Castle with a ‘fine and beautiful’ stone one (p.158), and the king’s expenditure upon landscape features with economic value – fishponds, dovecots, and of course hunting parks – are carefully scrutinised. Nor was court life confined to permanent residences such as palaces and fortresses: an array of expensive pavilions eased the discomforts of John’s campaigns, while his incessant travels were reflected in the prominence of palfreys (riding horses) in royal financial transactions. The court culture that emerges from Thomas’ meticulous study is one where, he argues, ‘soft power’ played an important part. Ceremonies, public gestures, and symbolic gift-giving formed an integral part of the exercise of royal power, but John’s personal flaws and crass misjudgements frequently undercut his acts of largesse, limiting his attempts to use conspicuous display to bind his courtiers to him; unsurprisingly, many joined the great revolt against him. The book’s final chapter compares John’s with other courts, both from his own time, including in the Byzantine and Islamic spheres, and from other periods: Thomas concludes that despite regional variations, much of the protocol and practice of John’s court was similar to contemporary courts elsewhere in Europe and in the Mediterranean countries, but pales in comparison with late medieval and early modern court culture. Here the author engages with Norbert Elias’s argument that early modern European princely courts had a ‘civilising process’ that tamed previously turbulent warrior aristocracies: while recognising the limitations of using a single reign to test Elias’s interpretations, Thomas argues instead that the courts of the early thirteenth century should be seen as just one stage in a much longer process of evolution from early medieval courts to their lavish Renaissance and early modern counterparts. The intricacies of one court from that process are revealed here in vivid detail, thanks in part to the very records that have distracted historians from its cultural life until now.